Well, I finally got around to doing a few of the things I said I would, and the system upgrades are drawing to a close:

Power Cords: I ordered the connectors (Wattgate and Marinco) and bulk wire (DH Labs) and put everything together. It was pretty easy; the hardest part was getting the screws lined up on the IEC connector so I could close the housing. No fires yet. I’ve got one feeding the 970 and another hooked up to the amp for my mains.

Interconnects: I’ve built a few interconnects over the past few weeks. All use DH Labs products: some D-75 digital coax cables for my DAC and upsampler, and some analog interconnects using the new BL-Ag bulk, silver interconnect. The technician I spoke with said the BL-Ag comes very close in performance to their top-of-the-line Revelation ICs which are $400 per meter. By comparison, you can build a pair of BL-Ag’s yourself for around $50. Goes to show that shopping around and a little DIY effort can really pay off.

Behringer SRC2496: If there’s anyone out there using an outboard DAC, this is a pretty slick little device. It upsamples up to 24 bit / 96kHz and provides jitter correction for about $130 (online). I’ve got one feeding my Musiland MD10 and things are sounding really, really good. Highly recommended. And even if you don’t like it, it won’t have broken the bank.

All I’ve got left is a multi-channel amp for my surrounds. I’m considering the Emotiva (“Traitor! Burn him!”) The similarly powered Outlaw is almost twice as much, so I just can’t justify it based on the fact it will only be for surrounds for movies.

It’s taken about two years, but the old system is close to being completely replaced, bit by bit. I gotta’ tell you though, I’m getting burned out. The upgrades were fun for a while, but I’ll be glad when everything is over. Even my posting activity has fallen off. Not so much here, but I’ve noticed on some of the other boards, the vast majority of threads deteriorate into flame wars where one party defends what they bought/hear/believe, against others who attack the legitimacy of what they bought/hear/believe, which then lead to tangents, which lead to more flames, and so on. It’s a pity; there are a lot of bright people in the hobby, but a lot of egos as well. In some respects, it’s no different now than the audio print press in the 80s. What’s different is that, with the Internet, millions of folks can go at it in real time. And a thread that starts off talking about a CD player turns into a debate over how CDs are pressed.

Don't forget the silver power cables between the main breaker and the street transformer - I find this is almost always overlooked.

Platinum is better!

Flame on!

I heard that your 'fridge will work better too. Solid silver from the pump to the street baby, your beer will thank you for it!

I knew the thread was highly flammable when I posted it

I just get a good laugh out of it. I figure some people buy crystals and sit under pyramids too, and the only thing you can do is try to get a good chuckle out of it.

And be glad it's not you. Or, in this case, me.

Trust me Charlie, if I'm going to buy crystals, I'm going to smoke or snort them. :p

Now, I'm really confused. These crystals; say again what they'd do to enhance the sound of your system…?

Well, depends on the crystals but if they're the ones that they famously import from Columbia then at least there's a scientifically valid explanation for altering the audio experience.

Come to think of it excessive use could explain the "belief in wires as magical objects" thing too.

Maybe someone here can make some beer money:

http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-09/092807reply.html#i4

But I really doubt it.

Well, I'll tell you cats, recently I've been doing some experimenting with cables, and I must say that so far my system hasn't fallen prey to snake oil-type claims; quite the opposite.

Not too long ago, I acquired a Totem Acoustic Mite speaker as a center, and the clarity and soundstage bumped up when I bi-wired it. Then I replaced some Kimber 4PR speaker cables with a 9 AWG Kimber 8VS and some 10 AWG SignalCable Ultras (for my longer runs). It noticeably bumped up again.

The latest (and probably final) tweak? A 1.5m pair of brand new Audience Maestro interconnects that I found dirt cheap on Audiogon (wouldn't have been able to afford them otherwise). They're running from my CD out, and since my center/monoblock/passive preamp configuration is driven by different interconnects I decided that it would be easiest to detect any shift if I ran just two channels for the time being. Guess what? These Audience ICs clearly enhance the sound in two-channel mode (the fullness almost matches the center), and now that I know Audience has a re-termination service that allows you to split, say, a pair of 2m cables into four 1m lengths, I'm going to do that in order to re-outfit my mono center-channel configuration. The best thing is that, even with the re-termination fees, the five interconnects are going to cost less than half the price of five new Audience Maestro ICs. I'll post again after the process is completed and burned-in just in case anyone's interested.

Actually, I can even amend the math on that. What I'll end up paying for five cables (less shipping costs) is just under the price of a new pair of .5m ICs. As one might imagine, I'm pretty excited about the whole thing.

Maybe you can go in for a couple of these next.

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina60.htm

If you notice any typos in my posts over the next 24 hours, just blame charlie for posting that last link - just skimming the pace for MD's latest offering has left me with a bad twitch...

Highway robbery, I tell you!…at that price, I'd go for crystals any day of the week…

Like I said, twitchy. Meant to type page...

Aww, go ahead and pull the trigger, why don't you?

Sorry to ruin your game like that, but I had to perform a cleansing ritual after reading that tripe, and passing it on is part of the cleansing.

I looked briefly at this latest, er, product (cough) from Machina Dynamica and I'm wondering... aren't there FTC regulations that prohibit this sort of BS? I understand we all need to keep in mind "caveat emptor," but this borders on obscene scam.

Problem is you'd need a lot of time and money to even begin the process of proving their claims to be a sham. I'm sure that you can't just send a message to the FTC that someone's claims are bogus you probably have to show some form of proof.

Or you can try and see where it goes. But I'm guessing that you'd actually have to buy their products in order to debunk them, which would be counterproductive to say the least.

It's almost like they are set up as a complete joke aimed at the audiophile industry, where you can find people willing to believe just about anything.

I would like to know how much money they are making on their stuff. Obviously, not enough to pay for a real web developer...then again spending more than bare minimum on the business would probably be counter to their goals.

It's a great business model. Buy cheap items and resell them at great margins...never mind that your claims for the products are completely bogus.

I find your mental housekeeping processes disturbing...

Heh you mean the stream of consciousness that I dumped into the reply?

Or the fact that I think it's a great if highly unethical business model?

If I could make millions selling dubiously marketed products to people who could afford them, would I? The fact that I'm not speaks volumes...although it would keep me in Outlaw gear for the rest of my life.

No, while I find their business model interesting, I'm a much greater fan of places like Oppo, BlueJeans Cables and Outlaws that try to give people actual value for their money without a lot of nonsense.

I was posting in reply to charlie's last comment, actually. My afternoon was busy enough that the delay between loading the page and posting a reply was at least an hour.

Ahh...thanks for clearing up the confusion.

Umm…pardon the non-techie guy here, but isn't the Machina Dynamica stuff done with tongue firmly in cheek? Over on Audiogon, Geoff-whatever-his-name-is is advertising a component base/stand which is basically two pieces of wood with a couple of springs attached. The joke is that the buyer has to have already purchased the wood. Call me naive, but I can't imagine anyone would fall for that.

Alas, Geoff is apparently quite a serious businessman, and he would seem to sell a fairly decent volume of products. The isolation base is actually quite a reasonable deal compared to some other products available for sale at MD.

hummm...serious businessman or a businessman taking himself too seriously....
one thing for sure....that kind of business can only be run long-distance(on-line or mail order)...one would think the nose and jaw reconstruction costs would gobble up any profit margin....

I have no idea what's up with MD but I have a fantasy where it's a guy who wanted to create useful Hi-Fi trinkets but after a bit of market examination concluded that there was no way for a rational small business to make nearly as much money as a snake-oil sales organization. Faced with that realization he then created a business where he would only be taking money from those who were fairly determined to be fleeced.

Unlike the marketers of cables and green pens he makes claims that are so clearly ridiculous that only those with a lot more money than sense would bite. Thus perhaps he is in fact the most honest of all this sort of marketeer.

Maybe.


I hope.


Yeah, I get that a lot.

Green pens?

Just a guess, but he may be referring to the practice of treating the edges of a CD with a green marker.

Really finding this thread enlightening. Not sure anyone deserves to be fleeced, but

Geez, what happened to the end of that post?!? Let's try again. Not sure anyone deserves to be fleeced, but of course, there's that old saw about fools and their money. I feel like scamming is just a bad business model, no matter what's behind it.

Well, fellow desperados and gunslingers, I can honestly say that I've run out of road. My system sounds fantastic with these new Audience Maestro ICs, but the truth is that it already sounded fantastic with the considerably cheaper Outlaw PCAs they replaced, and the differences I hear (admittedly more noticeable with my mono/center Totem speaker configuration than with my NHT mains) are so subtle that I wouldn't call them life-altering.

Simply put, this is me saying I'm done, finished, kaput, whatever with experimenting. Wouldn't call these Audience ICs "snake oil," but now I'm pretty certain that you can build a fine budget system (my initial goal) without breaking the bank. (Of course, the wife thinks I already broke the bank, but bless her heart for putting up with it.) Thanx to everyone in the forum for the insights and suggestions—even those I might not have heeded. Now, back to the music…

tru blue:

Glad to hear everything came together for you. It can take a while (and a lot of $), can't it?

Since my original post, I bought the Emotiva, so major purchases are over for me now as well. Maybe some time next year, I'll start looking at hi-def DVD players. Meantime, I think I'm going to tweak my vinyl playback system a bit -- but that won't break the bank and should be kind of fun.

So, like you, I've just been sitting back and enjoying the system and marveling at how good it sounds.

Just as a personal anecdote, I recently visited my brother in Atlanta who has a big buck 2-channel system. I was convinced I would find my budget-minded rig would sound lackluster in comparison. Much to my surprise, I thought my system really held its own in a number of parameters. I think he has a bit of an edge on vinyl playback; but I prefered my digital front end. Just goes to show you don't have to spend a fortune to get good sound!

Happy Thanskgiving to you. Hope you get some down time with some good movies and/or music!

Best,

- VD